Candidate for city comptroller David Weprin says his main goal if elected is to protect pensions and the city budget.

“I’m a little concerned about spending all the stimulus money now,” Weprin told NY1. “We do not have a budget problem this year at either the state or the city level because of the federal stimulus money out of Washington. But we are going to have multi-billion dollar deficits anticipated for the next, possibly, four or five years.”

Weprin said he’d like to see more audits of city agencies. As things stand, the comptroller is only required to audit a city agency once every four years, but Weprin said “we should be looking to audit all the city agencies, every year.”

Weprin's first target would be the city’s largest agency — the Department of Education. 

“They actually have, in addition to the regular agency, they have an $8 billion outside contracting budget,” Weprin said. “That budget has gotten a little out of hand and I'd like to go through some of those outside contracts.”

Weprin said New York City’s outside contracting budget makes up about 19% of the city’s overall budget. He said there’s room to make cuts.

The candidate also wants to put a comptroller’s office in every borough to offer support to small businesses. 

Weprin's been an assemblyman representing Queens for over a decade. Prior to that, he served on the City Council, where he chaired the finance committee. His career started in 1983 when then-Governor Mario Cuomo named him to a position that tasked him with regulating all of the financial firms in the state.

Weprin joined "Mornings On 1" Thursday as part of an ongoing series of interviews with leading candidates for city comptroller.